On October 25 and 26, 2018 Saimir Pirgu will sing the tenor soloist part in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem for the 2018/2019 symphonic season of the RAI Orchestra at the Auditorium RAI Turin, under the musical direction of Maestro James Conlon. He will sing alongside soprano Anna Pirozzi, contralto Marianna Pizzolato and bass Riccardo Zanellato.

“Verdi’s Messa da Requiem is one of my favorite works”, says Saimir Pirgu. “I sang it for the first time when Maestro Riccardo Muti invited me to the Salzburg Festival to perform it with the Wiener Philharmoniker, and I distinctly remember the incredibly strong emotion I felt in that circumstance.” After Salzburg, the Albanian born Italian naturalized tenor has frequently performed Verdi’s masterpiece in virtually all the major concert halls throughout the world.

After this Turin Messa da Requiem, Saimir Pirgu’s 2018/2019 season engagements include Alfredo in La traviata at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées Paris and at the Vienna State Opera, Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro Regio Parma, the title role in La damnation de Faust at the Vienna Konzerthaus and at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, Mozart’s Requiem at the Chicago Symphony Center, the title role in Werther at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro San Carlo Naples, and Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at the Vienna State Opera.

Information about Messa da Requiem in Turin:

Anna Pirozzi, soprano; Marianna Pizzolato, contralto; Saimir Pirgu, tenor; Riccardo Zanellato, bass.

James Conlon, conductor

Performances: October 25 and 26, 2018

[Photo: Fadil Berisha]